The brutal answer is no.
You don’t have direct control over whether you go viral.
There’s no magic “Algorithm, make me go viral!” button that top creators have somehow kept secret. At least not that I know of, after crossing 400k followers in ~2 years.
So then why do some creators see success and some don’t? Is it luck?
Some luck is involved, but mostly not.
You don’t have control over going viral, but the algorithm measures for content that keeps users on the platform. It uses that info to determine whether more people should see it.
So the question isn't "how do I go viral?" It's "how do I make content that keeps people watching and sharing?" That might seem obvious, but it’s easy to forget.
I broke it down into six skills in a recent carousel post. If you can get at least decent at all six, you're in a really strong position. Your chances of going viral go up massively.
Here they are:
1) Hook stacking: layering verbal, written, and visual hooks in the first three seconds so no one scrolls past.
2) Pattern interrupts: breaking the scroll rhythm with something unexpected, contrarian, or visually jarring.
3) Curiosity gaps: setting up a question your audience has to stay to see the answer to.
4) Visual contrast: before vs after, this vs that, bad vs good. The brain locks onto comparison instantly.
5) Watch time: the single metric Instagram uses to decide if your content deserves more reach.
6) Shareability: content people send to one specific person, not content that just gets liked by many. A like is passive. A share is a decision. The algorithm knows the difference.
Start with whichever one feels furthest from where you are right now.
I suggest spending a week really focusing on one at a time.
The more you post that week, the faster you improve. Then move to the next one. Six weeks, one skill at a time. Slower than trying to do everything at once, but that's exactly why it can work.
I know it’s not sexy, but it’s the best advice I can give you.
Stop waiting to go viral and start focusing on getting good. One usually leads to the other. The reverse almost never does.
PS.
Every Sunday I send premium members a breakdown of the top performing videos from the week, including exactly how to actually put these six skills to use by showing it to you in content that's already working. Keep an eye out if that interests you.
